The One Where Friends Meets HIMYM
by ConJT2013
Summary: Rachel is lost near MacLaren's. She goes in and bumps into Ted and Tracy Mosby. Tracy offers to take her home. Their two worlds collide...
1. The One Where Rachel Meets Ted and Tracy

Rachel Geller-Green had had a stressful day. After trying to explain to her boss why she didn't get on the plane to Paris, she'd had enough and decided to go home. She wasn't fired. Not yet, but she knew her time would come.

She'd meandered through the streets of New York City, musing over her day, and realised she was utterly lost. She saw signs of civilisation- a pub called MacLaren's. She went in and found it was very cosy and buzzing with life.

Over at the bar, she sighted a couple. One sounded very much like Ross: very intelligent and very talkative but almost conservative in his attitude to life. His partner was very musical, making an English Muffin sing in a very swing-like style. They laughed. He begged her to do it again with a scone, which she did to the same hilarious effect.

Rachel gently interrupted them and asked them where she was.

"New York."

"Ted!" the woman playfully slapped her husband. "Sorry about him, dear. I believe you are on the Upper West Side, 85th Street."

"Oh." Rachel frowned. She didn't realise just how far away she was. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit lost, that's all."

"Where do you live?"

"Greenwich Village."

The woman whistles. "Long way away. Long, long way away."

"Hey." a blond man sauntered up to the bar and leaned on the bar between Rachel and the couple. "Daddy's home."

"Excuse me." Rachel flashed her wedding ring, annoyed at this act of rudeness.

"Daddy's going away." the blond man disappears and sits back down in a booth with two other women and a man.

"Sorry." Ted laughed. "That's Barney. Now that his daughter's started college he's slipping back into his old womanising ways."

"He's, like, 50." Rachel felt sick.

"Yeah, but it works on some girls. By the way, I'm Ted and this is my wife, Tracy."

"Hi." Tracy smiles.

"I heard your little Scone song. Sweet."

Tracy giggles. "I've done that for ages. Ted rolls around with laughter. The kids just think I'm weird."

"Hey, Mom!"

"What, Penny?"

"Look what Aunt Robin just did!"

One of the other women who was with Barney had spilt a glassful of wine all down her front, creating an unfortunate clash of pink and red. Rachel winced, imagining her boss' reaction.

"Lily! Lily! Lily! Look at me!" she screeched.

"Calm down, Robin. Marshall, look after Marvin." Lily patted her son's head and took Robin to the lavatories.

"That's the gang." Ted shrugged.

"That's really nice, but I've got to get home. I have a husband and a daughter waiting for me. Er, bye."

"Wait!"

Rachel turned round as Tracy grabbed her arm. "Greenwich village is ages away, how are you going to get home?"

"I can get a cab." Rachel shrugged.

"No, no, the fare will be enormous. I'll drive you over."

"Really, you don't-"

"Look after Penny, Ted. I'm taking her home!" Tracy had already decided. "What is your name?"

"Rachel."

"OK, come on Rachel. See you later!"

"Listen, you don't have to drive me there, I can call Ross and-"

"I love Ted's lot, but they can be a little overbearing sometimes. I need breaks. Come on."

Tracy led Rachel to her car and opened the door for her. Rachel got in, surprised at this stranger's friendliness. Tracy shut the door and got in her side.

"The ride won't be great. Ted tried to fix it, but made it worse. It's going in to the garage on Monday."

Rachel tried to laugh but the thought of Monday turned her stomach.


	2. The One with All the History

"What's wrong?" Tracy asked as they pulled out onto the open road.

"I was meant to be moving to Paris for work but Ross called me so many times I realised I loved him and I got off the plane so my boss is really mad at me and I don't know what'll happen on Monday."

"Who's your boss?"

"Ralph Lauren."

"You'll be fine." Tracy grins. "He'll have family of his own, he'll know that you only stayed behind because you couldn't bear to be parted with them. Maybe you can try again, only with your family on board as well."

"You think so?"

"If he's desperate enough for you to go to Paris, it seems the only viable option."

Thinking about this, Rachel decided that that's what she'd have to do. "So, what do you do?"

"I'm in a band. Superfreakinomics. We're hoping to end world poverty."

"Wow, that is amazing."

"We played at Robin and Barney's wedding. That's how I met Ted."

"Wait…" Robin and Barney. The blond womaniser and the brunette who spilt wine down her front. "They hardly seem…"

"Compatible? Robin's a successful journalist, Barney works at GNB, they never really saw each other, had a massive row in Argentina and divorced after three years of marriage. No-one knows where the love went."

"That's terrible!"

"Yeah, but I guess that's the way things go. What about you?"

"Me and Ross… we're going to get married in a year or so. Fourth time for him ,you know."

"Fourth?"

"Second for me."

"Gosh, what happened?"

"He married a lesbian, they divorced, he married a girl called Emily except he said my name at the altar, they got divorced, we drunkenly married in Vegas when it was meant to be Monica and Chandler's (they got married somewhere lovely in the end, not Vegas at all) and the marriage was annulled, and now, this."

"You?" Tracy raised her eyebrows.

"Well, I was going to get married to an orthodontist but I ran away. I mean, I was more attracted to the gravy boat than him."

Tracy chuckled, liking Rachel more and more by the minute. "And then Vegas, right?"

"Right."

"I never thought I'd get married. You see…" Tracy stopped laughing and was suddenly sad. "I had a boyfriend, many years ago. He was called Max. He was killed in an accident on the night of my 21st birthday. I held myself back from falling in love with anybody. I suppose I believed that we all had one person and once that person was gone, they were gone. That's mad, right?"

"No. I used to believe that when I was younger. Then I started college and there were a lot of boys there, so I just thought, if I find the right one, I find the right one here. I had to do a lot of digging."

"Did you find him?"

"A long time after college."

Tracy then knew she meant Ross and smiled. "That's kind of cute."

"I want to know more about you." Rachel smiled back. "Who happened after Max?"

"I was in a two-year relationship with Louis, who loved me but I didn't really love him. He proposed to me on Robin and Barney's wedding weekend. Despite letting Max go, I rejected him and ended up staying in the room next to Ted and Barney's- not that I knew at that point. Ted was planning on moving to Chicago, to start a new life, and he was at the train station to come back to New York. The train was ridiculously late. I was there too, on the platform. He talked to me and we got chatting, bickering over the ownership of my umbrella." Tracy nodded to the back of the car. A battered old yellow umbrella was rolling around in one of the footwells. "It was mine, but I lost it at St. Patrick's Day. He took it. He left it at my old flat when he broke up with my roommate a few years later. It was mine again." She fondly laughed. "That is the best and most bizarre conversation I've ever had with anyone."

"Tracy, who were the other two?" Rachel asked.

"What do you mean?"

"The two that were sitting with Barney and Robin."

"Oh, them!" Tracy laughed. "They're Marshall and Lily. They've been married a really long time. Lily's pregnant with their third child."

"That's so sweet!"

"They are a typical married couple. The only big fight they had was when they were going to move to Rome but Marshall accepted a judgeship. They've come and gone from Rome, so they're settled here, and Marshall's a judge. We call him Judge Fudge."

"How does Ted know them?"

"They went to college, where they met, and the three of them shared a flat for a few years."

"Monica and Chandler are a bit like that." Rachel remarked. "Except they didn't meet in college. They just happened. Remember the night we found out? I flirted with Chandler and made him admit that he loved her. It was beautiful. They don't know that we know they know we know they know… what a night that was. Joey went crazy."

"Sorry, who's Joey and Monica and Chandler?" Tracy knew they were almost there.

"Did you ever watch _Days of Our Lives_?"

"Yes."

"Well, Joey played Dr. Drake. You know, the one that fell down an elevator shaft?"

"Really!"

Rachel nodded. "Yep. That's our Joey. Monica's head chef at Javu-"

"Oh my God, Ted and I go there sometimes! Oh her food's wonderful, you're so lucky to have her as a friend. Sorry, continue." Tracy blushed.

"And Chandler is some copyright guy, I don't know what he does."

"Anyone else?"

"Phoebe. Yes, my lovely friend, Phoebe. She's eccentric and mental and insane but we all love her anyway. I think she's a masseuse, I can't remember the last time we spoke. Oh dear, that's really bad."

"You'll talk to her again and it'll be like you never stopped."

Rachel laughed. "Oh, I hope so!"

"Where in Greenwich do you live?"

"Grove Street."

"OK."

"Hang on, do you want to have coffee with me?"

"Rachel, it's 10 o'clock on a Friday night!"

"You'll get to meet the gang. We hang out at a coffee place."

"I don't have a choice do I?"

"Nope. Only how to say 'yes'."

"OK, but I can't stay for long. I have a family, you know."

Rachel directed Tracy to Central Perk where they both got out of the car and went into the coffee shop.

"There they are."

"Rachel!"

"Hi, Ross."

They kiss. Tracy awkwardly stood behind them.

"This is Tracy. She gave me a lift home."

"Thank you." Ross shook her hand. "Can I buy you a coffee?"

"Yeah. Skinny Latte, please."

"Sit down."

Tracy sat on a battered orange leather sofa, surrounded by unfamiliar people. She met them, one by one, and started to spot the similarities. Monica and Chandler were like Lily and Marshall, Ross was SO like Ted and Joey would've been a good wingman for Barney any day.


End file.
